The Tribal Revolt of Chotanagpur (1831 To 1832) (An Old And Rare Book)

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The present study has emerged from a thesis for which 1 was granted the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by the Univer- sity of London in August 1961, Originally the thesis was a study of the tribal unrest of 1831-1833 on the south-west fron- tier of Bengal. But the present book deals only with its first phase known as the Kol Insurrection, which spreaed among the Mundas, the Oraons and other tribal people of Chota- Nagpur, and eventually among the Bhumijes of Patkum in the east, and among the Cheros and the Kharwars of Palamau in the west. This book was originally printed in Calcutta in 1964 and was well received. A pressing demand from histo- rians, anthropologists and sociologists has led to this second revised and enlarged edition.

The book deals with the British connection with the Ramgarh (present Ranchi and Palamau) district with reference to its geography, anthropology and political history, examining the effects of a complex alien administration upon a tribal society. It describes the outbreak, progress and suppression of the unrest, and discusses the causes, the nature and the after- math of the rising which led to revolutionary changes in the administration of this region. Since very little work has been done in the tribal history of India, it is hoped that this book will stimulate further studies on the subject.

This book presents a case study of the evil consequences of introducing into an undeveloped trital area a complex, legalistic administrative system. That system was the regula- tion-bound Cornwallis system developed for the plains areas of the Bengal presidency. The political, social and economic impact upon the Kols of that system, introduced without discrimination and without due supervision, forms the major part of this study. Tribal society was already feeling the unhappy effects of the hinduization and alienation of the trital rajas and zamindars of the area when the British penetration began. Both impacts were therefore fe't at once, and both introduced foreign notions and foreign people into the area, in an influx which led eventually to the economic ruin of the people. The tribal unrest of 1831-1832 was a crude form of protest against these changes and these outside influences. It was a gesture of despair.